Monday, April 22, 2013

Starguard!

I have known about the venerable line of Starguard! miniatures for a long time, but I was always hesitant about ordering them because it was not clear to me how big they actually were. Most of the information with respect to size referred to the Dreenoi and Amazons, which were taller than 1 inch, making me think the figures were more in line with typical 25mm (to the eye) sci-fi miniatures. However, I was assured by John McEwan at Reviresco that the Starguard! miniatures were definitely 1/72 scale, so I went ahead and ordered some of the figures that I was interested in.

The first figures are from the Imperial Terran Marines Assault Squad (S-135). They wear a round space helmet with combat armor that is based on that of Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars. Some of the other figures in this line actually wear the Stormtrooper helmet as well.

The next figures are the Terrasan Necromorphs Maggot Squad (S-145). These represent undead soldiers of the Terrasa Regents. They wear gas masks and jump packs. Their bloated and rugose heads look rather disturbing. I'm not sure whether to keep them as is, or to file the heads down a bit so they look more human. The last figure is an officer who reminds me a bit of Cobra Commander (there is also another officer in this line who looks like Dr. Doom).

The next group are Eli Raiders (S-115). I really like the design of their helmets. However, the spikes on the officer's helmet will have to go. All of the figures wear jump packs.

Last is an Amazon MG Squad (S-142a). The Amazons are tall in their high heels, but even without them, they would probably scale out to 6 feet tall (which is not inappropriate for Amazons). They are very much in proportion to 1/72 scale figures, so I have no problem with them.

Finally, a comparison of Amazon, Eli, Terran Marine, and Necromorhph.

I would have preferred that the figures come with separate jump packs, and the officers did not wear capes, but overall the figures work for 1/72 science fiction. They are definitely old school in sculpting style and design aesthetics. The lines that I ordered were not as dated to me, but some of the other figures definitely have the look of sci-fi from the 1930's on up to the 1970's. Some of the weapons the figures are armed with clearly fall into the category of "raygun" style weapons, and I may replace them with more conventional looking weapons.

I'm not sure how I want to paint these figures up. Some nice artwork by Niklas Jansson can be found at Android Arts with the official color schemes. Most of the schemes might be okay for shipboard combat, but probably not too useful dirtside.

Wow! Once again 1/72 Multiverse comes through. I have been eyeing these figures for awhile but had trepidations. The ray guns on some of them and the old school paint jobs made me a little nervous. It's also really useful to have the scale and figure for comparison. I may have to order some of these.

ok, still really cool stuff. certainly its funny to see them in storm trooper helmets (I looked at the Tin-soldier website to see them. where did you get yours out of interest?

I actually think that it would be interesting to have some, just for a fun side-story to my Oronegro project. of course I already have room for stuff like this so if they cost a reasonable price and I save up I think I will get them.

@Gowan - I ordered from Reviresco (www.tin-soldier.com). I don't think you can get them anywhere else. Their overseas shipping seems kind of expensive, but I'm not really sure how much it really costs to send stuff from the US to NZ nowadays